Inland fish farming leading the way

By IRENE CHAPPLE

Away from the picnic table where a group are gathered for a cup of tea, two men have their feet in the sand and their hands in their pockets.

They stand on the heights of Bream Bay's rolling dunes, backlit by the sparkling water.

The waves are only middling today; on a good day, workers get out their boards for a surf.

A colleague squints at the pair and deadpans they are busy "checking the water quality".

Nice work, this fishing business. But life is, of course, a little busier than this.

Things have been rather frantic since the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) convinced Mighty River Power to lease its spare land and moved in under the shadows of the disused Marsden Pt power station.

Behind the rolls of barbed wire and imposing steel gate, it now farms fish. It's an occupation gathering plenty of attention.

The aquaculture industry has been stalled by a moratorium that began in November 2001 and has now been extended from March this year to December.

The moratorium was imposed to control any goldrush of applications as fisheries laws were revamped, but it it has become a shambles, with Maori claims over a share in aquaculture and the foreshore and seabed debate stalling its progress.

The moratorium will now last at least three years and marine farmers are searching for alternative ways to satisfy the export market.

Though the market last year - particularly for mussels - was severely hit by global issues such as Sars, breeding fish and shellfish is still regarded as a sunrise industry for New Zealand.

Creating inland fish farms is one answer to demand and that is where Niwa and Bream Bay's ambitious aquaculture centre, come in.

The centre, which had $2.4 million in initial capital and has since swallowed a further $1.5 million, is funded by the Foundation for Research Science and Technology, through Government and commercial contracts for research and consultancy.

Dr Simon Hooker, Niwa's aquaculture business development manager, says the industry's response to Bream Bay has been far better than expected. The capacity to farm fish has doubled since mid-2002 and Bream Bay now employs 28 staff.

The project, says Hooker, is essentially taking risks on behalf of the industry. Commercial contracts cost "a hell of a lot more than we charge".

One of Niwa's most valuable - and most closely watched - contracts is with Parengarenga Fishfarms, which will buy 50,000 kingfish fingerlings, weighing around 5gm, from the Bream Bay complex this year.

The kingfish will be kept until they reach around 6 or 7kg and can be sold locally or overseas.

A Parengarenga spokesman says the company's decision to go inland was not influenced by the moratorium but he agrees it is an obvious move.

Parengarenga will be New Zealand's first inland kingfish farm and the company is sinking about $10 million into the project.

"This is cutting edge stuff," says Hooker.

Inland farms are rare because of difficulties breeding the fingerlings to adulthood.

Providing appropriate feed for the fish as they grow is one issue; water quality is another.

"The analogy is breeding sheep on Mars," says Hooker. "If the water is too warm, or too cold, or there is too much nitrate or ammonia ... all of this has got to be right."

But an inland farm avoids the red tape strangling sea cage farms.

A plan by Moana Pacific to breed Kingfish in sea cages ended because the company said bureaucracy made the venture too expensive.

Parengarenga says its inland venture - which had an easy run through the consents process - will be profitable in two to three years.

Back at Niwa, the kingfish that will eventually breed Parengarenga's fingerlings swim in circles around the central pole in a 80,000 litre vat.

They are more than a metre long and have been spawning for the past five years.

Niwa is involved in breeding several marine species, including groper, eels, oysters and mussels.

But Hooker is worried.

The moratorium has effectively stymied an industry long touted as one with potential.

Fisheries Minister Pete Hodgson has promised the extensions will not run beyond December but there is cynicism in the industry.

Hooker says if the inland projects are successful, the moratorium is not an issue. "But if the inland stuff doesn't work and people need the sea cage ... there's no point [to Bream Bay] really, is there?"

Aquaculture

Includes the farming of fish and shellfish such as greenshell mussels, oysters, salmon and paua. Species with potential for aquaculture include kingfish, rock lobster, sea horses and eels.

* Earns about $300 million a year. By some estimates, could earn $1 billion a year by 2020.

* Moratorium on new marine farms introduced in November 2001 to prevent "gold rush" while Government reforms law.

* Moratorium was due to expire in March but has been extended to expire in December.